KOLKATA: Asserting that the UPA government has taken steps to improve transparency in the functioning of the government, Union minister of minority affairs K Rahman Khan on Saturday claimed that there was no corruption in the country.

"How do you say that there is corruption? The so-called Coalgate or the 2G spectrum cases are mere presumptive losses," Khan told reporters here on the sidelines of a student conference organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

He termed corruption charges as wild allegations and the result of the propaganda by the opposition, which did not want the government to function.

Khan said the UPA government had taken initiatives to improve transparency in its functioning.

"We are taking stringent action to curb corruption. We brought the RTI Act so that there is transparency," he said.

Asked about BJP's announcement of Narendra Modi as prime ministerial candidate of the party, he said, "It's their internal matter, their prerogative to choose whoever they want. Why should we be bothered by that."

CHENNAI: When Tuticorin collector Ashish Kumar raised the issue of illegal mining of beach sand last month, the spotlight quickly turned on him, as the state government immediately transferred Kumar while also announcing an investigation into his allegations. But there has been only fleeting attention towards the man behind VV Minerals, the company Kumar had accused of illegal mining.

One month on, with the result of the investigations awaited, the focus has finally shifted to S Vaikundarajan, the low-profile chairman and managing director of VV Minerals, India's top exporter of industrial minerals garnet and ilmenite. There are two main reasons for this.

One, critics such as former IAS officer V Sundaram accuse Vaikundarajan, 58, of engaging in illegal mining to the tune of Rs 96,000 crore and more in the last decade. That's more than two-thirds of the state's accumulated debt. Two, the mining baron's perceived closeness to power.

Vaikundarajan's loyalists have blamed business rivals for such allegations. Vaikundarajan's spokesman could not be reached for this story.

The political class, save for the Communists, has largely kept mum on this issue. The Left parties (they are part of the alliance headed by the ruling AIADMK) have even criticised the government probe for limiting its purview to Tuticorin, where only a minor part of the illegal mining takes place.

Sundaram says "Vaikundology" (a pun on the baron's name and geology) is a huge problem. He has been sending letters since January 2013, much before the Kumar expose, to everyone from the industries secretary to the chief secretary, CBI director, Central Vigilance Commissioner and even the chairman of Atomic Energy Commission.

Sundaram says he hasn't received even an acknowledgement from any of them. G Victor Rajamanickam, the mineralogist who worked with Sundaram, says, "We have taken into account the legally authorised tonnage they are allowed to mine and the transport permits they have applied for over 10 years. The transport permits exceed the production capacity."

Vaikundarajan, based out of Tisayanvilai town in Tirunelveli district in south Tamil Nadu, is someone who keeps out of the media glare. People who know him say he's comfortable in his shirt-veshti (dhoti). So reclusive is he that there are no publicly-available photographs of the man. He is self-made, but there are scant details about how he built his business, or his family. He is no stranger to controversy, though. One of the ongoing cases against him, filed by rival businessman D Dhaya Devadas, is based on an allegation that Vaikundarajan openly admitted at a meeting of the ore panel that he bribed officials to get environmental clearance for beach sand mining in Tuticorin.

What adds to the interest in Vaikundarajan is the fact that he is a shareholder in Mavis Satcom, the company that runs Jaya TV, the AIADMK mouthpiece. In fact, the party, when it was in the opposition in 2007, had fumed at the DMK for harassing him.

Institute of Chartered Accountants is a prestigious institution. How come they invite a person like this to a student conference? Only corrupt people can make such comments............................Oh! Sorry today is April fools day.

Misuse and encroachment of Wakf properties in the State have caused a whopping Rs two-lakh crore loss to the exchequer, dwarfing the 2G spectrum scam, the Karnataka State Minorities Commission claimed on Monday.

The Commission has â€˜implicatedâ€™ almost all senior Muslim political leaders â€” most of them belonging to the Congress party â€” besides â€˜indictingâ€™ senior IAS, IPS and KAS officers.

The Commission, which took up its study on the subject in Bidar district in November last year, submitted the 7,000-odd page report to Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda on Monday. The report is titled â€˜Study on the misuse and encroachment of Wakf properties in Bidar districtâ€™.

Karnataka Minorities Commission chairperson Anwar Manipaddy demanded that the report be placed before the Legislature.

The total encroached land in Bidar is 1,803 acres (of 2,586 acres). Of the total estate value of Wakf properties worth Rs 410 lakh crore, properties worth Rs 2 lakh crore have been either encroached on or sold illegally. There are a total 33,741 registered properties in the State in 54,000 acres.

Manipaddy said his life was under threat. â€œI received threats from various quarters. The present Wakf Board chairperson Syed Riyaz Ahmed, who is absconding, too threatened me. In January, he offered me a bribe of Rs 4 crore.â€